My College Application

My brother and I are upstairs completely immersed in our game of Wii tennis when my Dad and Stepmom call us downstairs, we run down and find them sitting together on the couch in our living room; we knew this was bad. “We wanted you guys to hear this from us, not find out from someone else, but your mom was caught stealing last night and was arrested”. I wasn’t shocked. Having dealt with similar situations my whole life had made me grow accustom to the constant disruption that my mother had made in my life with her poor choices and criminal activity. Missed milestones, sporadic communication, and empty promises had all been a part of my childhood; and I always wondered why.
I quickly realized that my mother wasn’t like the perfect PTA moms that all my friends seemed to have, she acted differently and I didn’t get to see her that much. Even my friends whose parents were separated usually lived with their moms; but not me. I knew that she was different, but not why; and I still don’t.
I know what separates her from other “normal” parents: drug use, stealing, and living without caring whether or not you have responsibilities; but the question of why she acts like this is a mystery I haven’t been able to solve, but always wanted to.
Though growing up and having to deal with the consequences of my mom’s actions wasn’t ideal, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Because of her I have an innate curiosity of why people do what they do. What makes a bad person bad? What makes someone act on their bad ideas? Because of my mom, I have the drive to help someone affected by a “bad person” and find out why the bad person did what they did. I don’t think I’ll ever know why my mother is the way she is, but that won’t stop me from trying to figure out other people’s reasoning and to help people like me.